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Most Americans know that on August 1, 2007 at 6:05 pm, during evening
rush hour, a downtown Minneapolis bridge on Interstate 35W collapsed.
Eight are known dead and others are missing, more than a week after the
span crumbled.

What few people know is that four UMD police officers were called into
service at the wreckage site and one officer, Jake Willis, reported for
duty a mere 30 hours after the bridge collapsed.

Almost immediately after the disaster, UMD Chief of Police Anne Peterson
offered UMD's help to her colleagues at the University of Minnesota Police
Department. The next morning, she was notified that UMD help was indeed
needed. "They wanted as many officers as I could send, as soon as
possible," said Peterson. "By that time, many of the officers
on the Minneapolis scene had put in long hours and needed relief."
Peterson notified the off-duty UMD officers, Jacob Willis, Ben Stauber,
Mike Brostrom, and Chris Shovein, and all four were ready to leave within
a very short time.

Upon reaching Minneapolis, the officers were given a tour of the site
so they would know what they "were up against," said Brostrom.
"We climbed up to a high vantage point and when we got there, none
of us spoke for several minutes. I've been to the Grand Canyon and the
site was that overwhelming. The staggering size was unthinkable. Cars
were suspended. The event was frozen in time... It was eerie." Willis
agreed. "None of the pictures do it justice. At night, under lights,
the scene looked even more unstable. It was just massive steel and rubble."

Shovein said the smell was distinctive, "On the frontage road, we
could see cars that had been burned after they crashed. Even a day later,
the smell of wreckage — plastic, gas, engine fluids, was strong.
It's hard to describe the scene. There was iron rendered in half, massive
steel beams snapped. Far down in the site, the upturned cement trucks
looked tiny."

Stauber said the scene recalled another devastating event, "I was
in San Francisco during the 1989 earthquake when the freeway collapsed.
The bridge in Minneapolis was similar in scope to the earthquake. The
I-35 wreckage was chaos. That's all we saw last week, twisted concrete
and physical chaos."

University of Minnesota property adjoins the bridge site and Willis took
the first overnight shift on perimeter security, relieving other University
police. Stauber, Brostrom, and Shovein reported for duty at 7 am on Friday,
August 3, for what was to be an eventful day. First Lady Laura Bush surveyed
the scene that morning so security was exceptionally tight. "Along
with other officers, our job was guard duty and our checkpoint station
was on high alert," said Shovein. "We made sure no unauthorized
people approached the area. There was Homeland Security, Secret Service,
Army Corp of Engineers, police, fire departments, Red Cross volunteers,
and federal agencies to assist." Divers, emergency medical teams,
and military personnel also joined the scene. Security was heightened
because, "President Bush was to arrive the next day, and Laura Bush
was already in Minneapolis," said Brostrom. "For the 50 minutes
that Laura Bush was on the scene, our job was to seal off the University
of Minnesota's W-BOB building."

UMD's officers have been trained to handle mass incidents. Willis said,
"It was an extremely complex situation but the whole operation was
well coordinated. Our training on critical incidents paid off." Brostrom
agreed, "The command center was on top of every development. For
an emergency situation, it was really well-planned and well-organized."

"We were impressed by what we saw from fellow officers and first
responders,” said Stauber."We knew they dropped everything
else in their lives, their obligations, their families, not knowing where
they were going or when they would get back. We saw a lot of people who
were operating on a lack of sleep, but they were in critical positions,
so they needed to keep going." The stress levels on the scene were
high because workers were still recovering bodies and the risks were great.

The UMD officers were were among many Minnesotans offering assistance.
"We must have seen three dozen other police departments," said
Shovein. "It was a testament to the caliber of police officers. They
dropped everything to help. They traveled to another community to help
people they didn't know." The generosity of Minnesota was evident.
"Red Cross volunteers came by several times a day," said Shovein.
"They thought of everything, food, water, even sunscreen. Restaurants
and stores drove up with food deliveries."

UMD Chief Peterson gives credit to the four UMD officers, "These
guys were ready to go. Ben was on vacation and the others were on their
days off and within hours they were at the scene. UMD still had 100 percent
coverage, but we were able to help our University Police colleagues. We
know they would do the same for us. Our sympathies go out to the families
affected by this horrible disaster. We're pleased we were able to help
out and I am proud that I could count on my guys."